Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History conducts basic research in modern analytical methods with the aim of an integrated science of human history. It bridges the gap between history and natural sciences. Scientists from different disciplines such as biology, linguistics anthropology, archaeology, and history jointly work on innovative methods, in particular in the fields of cutting-edge genetic sequencing, bioinformatics, language documentation, and phylogeography. This thoroughly integrated, interdisciplinary approach will allow long-standing questions about human history that were previously deemed difficult, or even completely intractable, to be resolved.

The institute was founded in March 2014. Founding directors are Johannes Krause (Department of Archaeogenetics), Russell Gray (Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution) and Nicole Boivin (Archaeology).